David Brooks - "Snap Out of It"

[ksen]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/opinion/david-brooks-snap-out-of-it.html?_r=0

This leadership crisis is eminently solvable. First, we need to get over the childish notion that we don’t need a responsible leadership class, that power can be wielded directly by the people. America was governed best when it was governed by a porous, self-conscious and responsible elite — during the American revolution, for example, or during and after World War II. Karl Marx and Ted Cruz may believe that power can be wielded directly by the masses, but this has almost never happened historically.

Second, the elite we do have has to acknowledge that privilege imposes duties. Wealthy people have an obligation to try to follow a code of seemliness. No luxury cars for college-age kids. No private jet/ski weekends. Live a lifestyle that is more integrated into middle-class America than the one you can actually afford. Strike a blow for social cohesion.

Go home David Brooks, you're drunk.

 

[Togo]

Second, the elite we do have has to acknowledge that privilege imposes duties. Wealthy people have an obligation to try to follow a code of seemliness. No luxury cars for college-age kids. No private jet/ski weekends. Live a lifestyle that is more integrated into middle-class America than the one you can actually afford. Strike a blow for social cohesion.

Meh. We tried this in the UK. It didn't work all that well.

 

[ksen]

While we're in an economy starved for demand it's nice to see David Brooks call for the one class of people that actually can spend to not spend.

Brilliant.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

But are the wealthy as big a voting concern? The wealthiest precinct in Akron votes Democrat. It is the poor white people that seem to think they need to fight the fight to keep the wealthy tax rates lower.

It seems the poorer the county, the better the Republicans do.

 

[untermensche]

There is some truth to what he says.

The US has never been directly led by the "masses".

And Ted Cruz is not led by the "masses".

He is the leader of a very narrow minded small minority of the country.